After life
by les etoiles et le ciel
Summary: When you die, if you let yourself pass on, you wind up in a random district of Rukongai with no memory of your past life save for your name. He knew that. He hadn't even known that she had died, he had no idea what she would even look like now./oneshot, hitsukarin inspo from Rapture by ichilover3


When you die, if you let yourself pass on, you wind up in a random district of Rukongai with no memory of your past life save for your name. He knew that.

He hadn't even known that she had died until Kuchiki told him to be on the lookout, that Kurosaki needed to find her. He was a bit beside himself learning of her death, he was told she was hit by a car, saving a child that had ran into the street after his ball.

He hadn't seen her in around 10 years. He had no idea what she would even look like now.

5 years had passed since he heard the news of her death, no one had managed to find her. He found himself wondering if she was any different than she was the last time he saw her.

Would she still call him by his first name? Would she still have that sassy bite to her words? Was she still brave? Would she go through the Shinigami academy?

Graduation had just taken place at the academy, new recruits were on their way in today. Matsumoto had just told him today, she neglected her paperwork once again in favor of a drinking bender when the papers came from the academy. The paperwork was lost in a seemingly endless pile on her desk until earlier this morning. She hadn't even gotten to the new recruits names yet, too busy processing other important paperwork she had put off.

It was a shock to him when he introduced himself to the new shinigami that would be joining his division, that she was one of his new subordinates.

"Kurosaki Karin, it's great to meet you Taicho."

He froze at her introduction, there was no way he would have recognized her. Her hair had grown quite a lot, her spiky ponytail coming down to the top of her back. It was hard not to notice how womanly her body had become with her robes hanging almost as loosely as Matsumoto's and her hakama being so short, resembling a flowing skirt rather than pants. Her zanpakuto was tucked into a a turquoise sash tied around her waist in a bow. She was taller than she used to be, she still looked to be in her mid 20s. Her face was beautiful, not looking anything like the child he remembered. He was glad he had aged to look around his mid 20s too, if she was anything like she was before death he knew she'd probably tell him he looked like a child.

"Hitsugaya-taicho?" her voice snapped him out of his trance, he couldn't believe he had just stood there ogling her for as long as he did, "Is something wrong?"

"Nothing." he blinked at her, trying to snap himself out of whatever feeling just raged through his body.

"Matsumoto, I need you to escort Karin to my office as soon as you are done showing the lot around." With that he shun-po'd to the 13th division to gather Kurosaki.

He had explained to her that he knew her before she had died, her brother was also a shinigami and had been looking for her since she arrived in Rukongai 5 years ago. She seemed slightly uncomfortable when she walked into his office to be met with her brother's embrace immediately. He assumed it was awkward for her to not remember him when he had spent the last 5 years searching for her to no avail. To her he was a stranger.

Kurosaki seemed to pick up on this too after a while, he apologized as he let go of her, explaining that he'd waited so long to see her that he couldn't hold himself back. He understood that she wanted to be placed in the 10th but, he would like for her to visit he and his wife in the 13th as often as she could.

It was a shock to everyone when she began remembering her life as a mortal. She remembered Karakura when she was assigned as its temporary guardian for a while the current guardian was recovering in the Seireitei from injuries he had suffered in the living world, the place of her death had triggered her memories.

He came across her sitting on one of the roof of one of the buildings in the 10th, the one that happened to be his thinking spot, on the night she arrived back to the Seireitei.

"Karin?" he called out to her after making out her silhouette.

"Toshiro!" she jumped at his voice. He was taken aback at the usage of his first name, she had referred to him as Hitsugaya-taicho up until this point. He would have reprimanded her if he hadn't caught the glint of tears in her eyes.

"Is something going on?" he asked, sitting next to her.

"I was standing near a guardrail, looking at the sky, when I turned around to the road and just froze. In my head I remembered a little boy, running down the hill chasing his ball that had rolled into the street. His parents were chasing after him, screaming at him not to run into the road. He did anyway, there was a car coming right at him. I jumped the guardrail and pushed him out of the way. The next thing I know I hear tires screeching to a halt and screaming then, I'm staring at my own body laying in the middle of the road."

He was shocked initially because she had just described her own death, something she wasn't supposed to remember. Then he realized where it was that she had died, had she really continued to go to their rendezvous point after all those years?

"You aren't supposed to remember things like that." was the only response he could think of.

"I wish I didn't." she said blandly. "I remember you too. Who would have thought I'd run into you again? I just wish I didn't have to die to see you again." she said quite bitterly, he flinched slightly at the words. "I waited at that spot at least once a week since the last time I saw you, hoping you would be there."

"A lot was going on, new threats to the Seireitei had preoccupied all of us. I wasn't even told of your arrival in Rukongai until months later, I searched for you."

He wasn't sure why he was feeling the need to explain himself to her, maybe it was because he had never seen her acting like this, she had never once appeared vulnerable to him. Maybe it was because he had been meaning to come see her more, but since granny Haru had passed on he didn't have as much of an excuse to take a leave.

"I know now that you're a busy guy but, you're not too important for me. I'll make my way up the ranks here and prove it to you." With those words that she leapt from the building and flash stepped away, presumably to her room.

It was a year or so later that she had actually risen to the position of his 3rd seat. He wasn't surprised by this, he knew she had always been determined if not anything.

Matsumoto had taken the opportunity to make fun of him.

"Ne Taicho, would have thought your human girlfriend would've become your 3rd seat?" she chided him with a giggle when he promoted her.

He didn't respond to her teasing in the way he usually would have. He had come to accept that he had romantic feelings for her by now, he no longer had the restraint of her residing in the living world.

"Girlfriend?" Karin asked from the doorway, go figure.

"I'll leave you two alone!" Matsumoto said in a sing-songy voice, brushing past Karin out the door into the barracks of the 10th.

"What is she talking about?" Karin asked approaching his desk.

"You know how she is." was his response.

"Do I?" She asked, shifting her weight between her feet intermittently and looking down at her feet before meeting his questioning glace.

Looking into her eyes made his legs feel weak, she had become so beautiful since he knowing her when she was alive. He'd be lying if he said that he never thought about her body either, the same one that was approaching dangerously close right now. He had admired her many times since her return into his life, there was no way it had gone unnoticed.

"I liked you quite a lot when I was alive." she told him, "I like you quite a lot now."

Kurosaki would be angry with him, kissing his younger sister like this but, his body seemed to move on it's own at her admission. He knew the door was open and anyone could see them but it didn't stop him from hoisting her onto his desk and continuing to kiss her senselessly.

"Toshiro.." she gasped when he relinquished his possession of her lips.

Whatever words he was about to say died in his mouth when he heard Matsumoto's snickering from behind the doorway, he doubted she ever left from that spot.

"Matsumoto get lost!" he shouted to her, a small blush had risen on Karin's cheeks when she also came to the conclusion that the fukutaicho had seen and heard everything

He knew the whole Gotei 13 would know of what just happened between then in a few hours at least, he was expecting her fuming brother to appear at his door sooner or later.


End file.
